Railway rail and rail-joint



' July 28, 1931. s. G. THOMSON ay 22, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Patented July 28;, 1931 SAMUEL G. THOMSON, F FLUSHING, NEW YORK, N. Y.

RAI LWAY nLAiL we Rein-Joins:

Application filed May 22, 19301 Serial No. 454,575.

This invention relates to an improvement in the upper sections of the rail and splice bar, primarily in the form of the bearing'for the splice bar under the rail head, and particularly, the uppermost portion of the bearing-adjacent tothe under corner of the rail head.

My improvement consists in giving a substantially horizontal position to the upper "and outer portion ofthe splice bar bearing under the rail head, and in some of the forms the under face of the rail head is carried inwardly in a substantially horizontal direction for the greater portion of the width of the undersurface of the rail head. This effects economies in metal distribution.

Some of the designs and principles embodyiiigthese improvements are related and supplementary to two of my former applications for patent and are part of the same development. This substantially horizontal position of the outermost portion of the splice bar bearing under the rail head is mentioned and described in connection With Figures 1 and '2 of application No.445,264, dated April 18th, 1930; and also in connection with Figures 3 and def application No. 450,112, dated May 6th, 1930. In'the former mentioned application, this upper and outer concave in form, but the} coiicave bea'ring may-lie also at a steep inclination with the horizontal. In the latter mentioned apphcation, this upper and outer portion of the bearing may be flat or concave and may app'roach'the horizontal or be steeply inclined. Tnthis application, this upper and outer portion ofthe bearing is claimed broadly as lying in asubstantiallyhorizontal position, but it maybe fiat or concave in ll/S form.

The term substantially horizontal Wherever found in this specification and in the claims, is intended as descri ,tive of a i ace which ma var several degrees from the 'horizontal 'an'd' still be Within the spirit of my invention. 5 The aforesaid term is meant'to describe a face that is considerably nearer toan exact horizontal position than to the least inclination thatf'ever has been'used heretofore asa fishing angle hearing. There portion ofthe bearing is claimed broadly as isa basic mechanical reason that has heretofore prevented the use of less inclination than about'll degrees for this fishing angle hearing under the rail head. The range has been from 11 to 18 and even 20 degrees,23 degrees being used in one of the very early designs of T-rail. The former art has shown from the beginning of the development of the T-rail having a splice bar bearing under the rail head, that 11 degrees seems to be the irreducible minimum for the maintaining of the necessary Wedg bearings,

iiig fit in the coacting and for providing the required amount of metal to take up Wear duringtl'ic life of the rail.

An inclination of one-tofourabout 14 degrees-hasbeen and continues to be the usual practice.

My improvements in this application and in the applications mention-ed above make it possible for bearing t'o'lie at a the outer portion of the upper very slight inclination.

This is accomplished by the use of a novel combination of curved and slanting faces comprising the inner portion'of the upper bearing.

This allords the necessary abut Inent against the clamping action 01" the bolts, and provides metal for Wear and the mainte nance of tight rail-joints.

bearing comprising enlarged inner portion of its variable steer) This novel upper the combination of air Width having a' l inclination and an outer portion With a very slight inclination is supplemented iii some of the designs by anewtype of bearing of the bar on topof the rail foot, a

feature developed in my application No.

450,112 Some of these designs are particularly effective when used With an upper bearing having its outer portion lying in a substantially horizontal position.

An exactly horizontal position -for the outerportion of the bearing WOUlCl'lil some cases be most effective; but it is obvious that an'under face of the rail head would be impracticable to roll ii an exactly horizontal position, and.

that at least a very slight inclination of this under face is required in order to provide roll clearance, even when the face isonly a'fractioiial part of the ivi of the rail outer under corner.

dth of the under surface head immediately adjacent to the The term substantially horizontal therefore, wherever it is used in this specification and claims with reference to the outer portion of this upper bearing, is intended as describing an under face of the rail head lying at a considerably less inclination with the horizontal than the minimum 11 degrees heretofore used in the art, and preferably nearer in its inclination to an exact horizontal position than to said minimum 11 degrees.

The object of my improvement as already indicated and described in the above menticon-v ed applications, is to afford a positive abutment for the top of the bar such as will hold it under the rail head, and also will effectively transmit. the vertical rail load tothe splice bar, as well as maintain a pinching tight fit at this upper and outer portion of the splice bar bearing.

The precise nature. of my invention may best be understood by referring to the acstood from the description and drawings of said applications. 1 F gures 1 to d inclusive are sectional elevations of a rail and a splice bar fitting said rail and illustrating some of. thepreferable forms, while Figures 5 tolOinclusive are sectional views of the upper bearing zone of the splice bar head and rail head.

Similar reference characters denote corresponding parts thruout the various figures of the drawings.

, The letter H, wherever seen, designates the rail head; W, the rail web; F, the rail'foot;

B, the splice bar; C, the substantially hor izontalportion of the under surface of the rail head; D, the lower bearing of the splice bar on'the top surface of the rail foot; line hh, a horizontal line through the outer edge of face 0; line ff, the centre line of the clamping bolts, 7 a

Figure 1 showsa flat face C joined to an enlarged concave under face 1, thus effecting F a thickened web which tapers gradually upward almost to the full width of the rail head. This affords a large bearing area for the head of the splice bar against the rail, the lower portion 2 of the bearing abutting theupright face of therail web. Lower bearing D shows the usual contact of the splice bar againstthe top face of the rail foot. lhis wide lower bearing D effects an upward and inward thrust to the bar directly into the enlarged concave upper bearing as the bar is drawn tight by the clamping bolts. It will be noted that the upward tendency of the bar due to the wedging action at the lower bearing D causes an excess of pressure at G, which pressure gradually diminishes downwardly around the curve. On the other hand, the pressure due to. the direct pull of the bolts along line f.f is a minimum at C and increases gradually to a maximum at 2. Thus, a well balanced pressure condition exists thruout the area of the bearing,wvith the re sult that a good fit is maintained and apinching action exerted at C to keep the fit tight at this point.

The pinching action at the under corner of the rail head is due to the substantially horizontal position of the. face C, which is the basic idea of my invention. A maximum pressure is maintained by this feature under new and worn service conditions at a point where looseness or a clearance is the usual result in construction designed to swing in at the bottom around a fulcrum as shown at 2 in Fig. 1 as wear takes place. As the bar is wedged upwardly by being pulled inwardly at D by the clampingbolts, the tendency of the head of the bar to slip upwardly and outwardly in its upper bearing is resisted by the substantially horizontal position of the uppermost portion of the bearing. This lateral position of this uppermost face becomes the tightest point and forms an effective barrier against the head of the bar slipping up wardly in the bearing and outwardly away from the rail head. As this outermost portion of the under surface of the rail'head approaches ahorizontal position it becomes more effective in encircling the inner portion of the head of the bar and thus acting to prevent the rotation of the bar around its own centre,-inward at the bottom and outward at the top,under the vibration and wear of service. This laterally extending outer portion of the upper bearing also partly neutralizes the tendency of the top of the barto be forced outwardly-under load by the wedging action of the steeply inclined lower portions of the upper bearing. Fora given balanced condition of the head of the baragainst the rail, the approach of the outer upper portion of the bearing toward a horizontal position allows a corresponding approach of the lo-wer 'inner portion of the. bearing toward a vertical position.

Figure 2 shows an extreme design of rail head with wide lateral under face C, which effects a maximum barrier against outward slipping of the head of the bar and affords a maximum abutment against the vertical rail loads. An important feature of my invention is here illustrated in effecting a more economical distribution of metal than in the usualdesign of rail shown by dotted line 3. The metal shown between the dotted line 3 and face may be placed on the top or" side 7 of the rail'head Where it can "be used to increase -the stiifnessand'the wearing life of the rail." The use of this wide lateral under face gives tothe upper section of the rail somewhat of the I-beam characteristics in distribution for stiffness. In this design,'this wide lateral under bearing face is combined with a maximum upright bearing face 4 against the rail web. Asthebar is wedged upwardly by the pull of the bolts against the lowerbearing D, the head of the bar is guided directly into the angle by these two faces G and 4 lying almost at right angles to each other. This gives a very effective anchorage for the head of the bar as well as a maximum bearing area, which is particularly desirable for electrically insulated rail-joints.

With an angular piece of insulation between the head of the bar and the rail, a lateral face of the width usually provided is afi'ordedto resistthe vertical wheel loads, and an additional upright face of equivalent area is effective in preventing the cutting of the insulation by the tightening and wedging action of the clamping bolts.

Figure 3 shows an upper bearing face of parabolic curvature, in which the upper portion approaches a horizontal position. The concavity of the entire upper bearing is less than that shown in Fig. 1, and its upper por-' tion C is very sli htly curved instead of the fiat tangent face shown in Fig. 1.. A clearance 5 is provided between thehead of the bar and therail web-,which, with the lower bearing D of limited width and with an elastic base member 6 under the rail, allows a slight inward swing of the bottom of the bar around the top hearing as a fulcrum under the vibration and wearof service conditions,,as thehead'of the bar slips slightly upward in its bearing against the steeply sloped faces of the upper portion of the rail web; This action results in a tightening of the-'coac'ting faces at C due to their approach toward a horizontal position. This pinching action at the top when combined with the outer location of the lower bearing D on the rail footis effective in holding the bar solidly under the rail head.

Figure 4 shows the under surface of the rail head-as broken into two fiat faces C and 7 The lower bearing D is located at the juncture of the rail foot and web, and lies at an inclination opposite and equivalent to the up er bearing 7, by which combination of aces the bar may be constructed to be reversible. The movement or tendency of the bar under'the clamping action of the bolts is directly inward along the centre-line of the 'boltsff. Only slight pressurethus would pp beex'erted against face C, and only to the extentithat it deviated from an exact horizontal position. This face C may be changed to act as astr ongly;supporting underfacefor resist ing the vertical load by decreasing the inclination of the lower bearing. This maybe better understood by considering that hearing D is cut away from the rail so that the usual lower fishing angle bearin g on the upper surface of the rail foot is similar to that shown in Figure 2. With the wedging and clamping action of the bolts acting against this usual inclination, the tendency of the bar would be strongly upward so as to throw an excess of pressure against bearing C.

Figure 5 shows an enlarged sectional View of the zone adjacent to the under surface of the rail head. A uniformly curved face comprises the entire under surface, starting above in a substantially horizontal position C and extending gradually downward and inward to its point of tangency 10 with the vertical face of the rail web. In forming the head. of the bar, the same curvature is continued on down to 11 thus affording a clearance between the bar and the rail web. This design gives a cylindrical socket fit with the bearing extending for almost one-quarter of the circumference, and with the radial centre intersected by a vertical plane at the outer face of the rail head. lVit-h the lower part of the bar swinging inwardly to take up wear, the upper hearing will slip around slightly in the socket and maintain a good fit at all points, with a maximum upward pressure exerted at the pinch-point C due to its lateral overhang.

Figure 6 shows a cancave under surfaceof the rail head similar to that of Fig. 5, except that in this Fig. 6 the curvature increases as it approaches the horizontal position at C. The bearing of the bar is carried down only part of the way around the curve to 12, thus making of this design more of a lateral under-bearing than a combination of lateral and in the former figures. rail head is cut under what reducing the width of the substantially horizontal overhanging bearing.

The side face of the Figure 7 shows a very wide and laterally projecting rail head with a flat face 0 extending sharply inward to its point of tangency with a uniformly. curved face of large radius extending downwardly and, inwardly to the rail web. the head of the bar and the rail extends above the mid-point 13. of the concave under surface of the rail'head, thus making of this design even more of a lateral underearing type than that shown in Fig. 6. The 7 bearing of the bar against the rail head is only around that portion of its under surface which is adjacent to the substantially horizontal face C.

bearing of the head of the bar against the rail similar to that shown in Fig. 2, except that the fillet 14 has a larger radius than the design shown in Fig. 2.

of the bearing.

upright faces as shown The clearance between Figure 8 shows an under and an upright slightly, thus soinebearing of uniform curvature under the rail through to the under corner to form the sul .stantially horizontal portion G. In this de conditions.

Figure 9 shows a very shallowconcave head, extending from the innerfillet at 15 s gn'there is a distinct offset at the juncture of the head' and the web of the rail instead of the gradual change in the section of the rail as shown'in most of the other figures.

the under-bearing is disposed similarly to the usual flat fishing angle with the usual inclination, the head ofthe bar also standing free of the rail web. However, the action of the bar in being clamped inwardly against a concave face is much different from the action of the head of a bar against the usual flat fishing bearing. With the concave face, under the clamp- In some respects ing action of the bolts, the substantially horizontal pinching-face O holds the head of the bar firmly in place and an excess of pressure is effected at the inner portion of the hearing 15. The vertical rail load exerts an excess of pressure at. C, thus giving a good average'distribution of the forcesover'the entire area of the bearing under loaded service will be noted that my improvement in the 7 form of the under surface of the rail head affords a positive abutment for the top of the bar, such as will prevent it frombeing forced outward from its normal position when wedged upward by the force of the bolts pulling the bar inward along the inclined lower bearing, particularly in the de signs where there is, under load, an outward wedging action of the head of the bar against the steeply inclined faces of the rail web and head. The overhanging laterally extending portion of the upper bearing is also particularly effective in. transmitting the verticalrail load to the splice bar, and in maintaining a pinching tight fit at this upper and outer portion of the bearing where, in the former art, there often is a tendency to looseness. It will be noted also, that an economic distribution of metal is effected by extending the substantially horizontal portion of the upper bearing sharply inward so as to comprise the greater portion of the under surl face of the rail head.

1. A T-rail having a portion of the under surface of its head lying in a substantially horizontal position, and a splice bar contacting with said head and with the top of the rail. foot outside of the outer edge of said head contact.

2. A T-rail'having aportion ofthe under surface of its head lying in a substantially horizontal position, and asplice bar having the outer edge of its bearing on top of the rail foot lying outside of the outer edge of its bearing under the rail head. 1 I

3. A T-rail having a portion of the under surface if its head lying in av substantially horizontal position adjacent to an under corner of its head, and a splice bar contacting with the top of the rail "foot at a greater distance from the rail web than said bar contacts with the rail head.

' 4. A T-rail having a portion of the under surface of its head lying in a substantially horizontal position adjacent to a vertical plane at the side of the rail head, and a splice bar contacting with the top of the rail foot outside of said vertical plane.

5. A T -rail having a substantially horizontal face lying adjacent to an outer under corn-er of its head, and a splice bar contacting with said head and with the top of the rail foot outside of the outer edge of said head contact.

6. A T-rail having a portion-of the under surface of its head lylng 1n a substantially horizontal pos1t1on, and'a splice bar having its upper portion extending outwardly be yond said under surface and its lower portion bearing on the rail foot outwardlybeyond the outer edge of said under surface.

7. A T-rail having a portion of the under surface of its headlyingin a substantially horizontal position, and a splice bar contacting with said head and having a slanting bearing on the rail foot, outside of the outer edge of said head contact. f

8. A T-rail having a substantially horizontal face formingthat part of the under surface of its head which @lies adjacent to the under corner of its head, and a splice bar having an upper portion underlying said corner and a lower portion engaging a slanting face on the rail foot. r i i 9. A T-rail having a portion of the under surface of its head lying in a substantially horizontal position, and a splice bar having an upper portion adjacent to the rail head extending outwardly beyond its contact with said under surface and a lower portion having a slanting engagement with the rail foot.

10. A T-rail having a portion of the under surface of its head lying in a substantially horizontal position, anda splice barhaving an enlarged head and a reduced upright web extending outwardly beyond the outer edge of its contact with the rail head.

I web than the inner and 11. A T-rail having a portion of the under surface of its head lying in a substantially horizontal position, and a splice bar having a portion of its bearing under the rail head lying at a greater angle to the horizontal than any portion of the lower bearing of the bar against the rail, said lower bearing extending outwardly beyond said head bearing.

'12. A T-rail having a substantially horizontal face lying adjacent to an outer under corner of its head, and a splice bar having its horizontal position and adjoining the fillet at the juncture of the rail web and head, and a splice bar having its upper portion extending outwardly beyond said under surface, said bar contacting with the top of the rail foot and standing free a greater distance from the lower web fillet than the upper portion of the bar stands free from said upper fillet.

14. A T-rail having a substantially horizontal face lying adjacent to an outer under corner of its head, and a" splice bar having its head projecting outwardly beyond said corner and inwardly to afford a bearing eX- tending inwardlyand downwardly toward the rail web said bar havin the inner ed e of a bearing on the rail distance from the rail of the inner the rail web.

15. A T-rail having surface of its head lying in a substantially horizontal'position, and a splice bar having ahead bearing at the inner web fillet of the rail and its lower portion bearing on the rail foot, the inner and outer edges of said lower bearing lying a greater distance from the rail outer edges respectively of said upper hearing.

In testimony whereof, I have signed at Flushing, in the city of New York and the State of New York, this 21stday of May,

, SAMUEL G. THOMSON.

foot lying at a greater web than the distance edge of said headbearing from a portion of the under 

